Fantastic performance sees the Reds through to the next round of the Cup

After the last game against Patcham saw us through to the next round of the cup, we were given the challenge of Hollingbury Hawks Colts in the 3rd Round. Hollingbury are a div 2 team and sitting mid table so far this season but we knew it would be a tight game.

The weather certainly wanted to have its say today with ridiculous rain and wind! Luckily we were playing on astroturf so there were no puddles across the pitch!

Hollingbury came into the game looking sharp and set up with a 4-5-1 formation looking to try and control the midfield however our Midfield did the dominating. Jack and Harry started in the middle and were flanked by Zack attack and Stephen! Right from the off we dominated the ball, playing some quick, sharp passes with some fantastic movement around the pitch.
Jack and Harry kept the Hollingbury defence and Midfield pinned and were winning the ball all across the Hollingbury half.

Some great play over on the right side between Cam, Zack and Sam created some space for Zack to put in a cross that caused havoc and the hawks defender playing the ball out for a corner.

Jack Stepped up to take the corner and saw the keeper standing off his line and been blocked by one of his defenders and one of our boys. With that he whipped in a beautiful hit, over the keeper and off the far post into the back of the net! 1-0 and less than 10 minutes on the clock.

From the Hawks kick off, our boys took the pressure back to them, with Toby, Cam and Dean being rocks at the back making sure nothing got past them.

Stephen and Zack with the help of Kieron, Stan and Sam were getting a lot of joy down both wings causing issues with decent crosses but the hawks keeper was doing well keeping the ball.

From a hawks attack, Oliver claimed the bouncing ball and played a long kick out to the left hand side to Kieron. Kieron controlled the ball and played a fantastic crossfield pass into Zack. Zack beat his man and played a lovely pass into Sam who played a quick 1-2 with Stan and held off his man with a great show of strength before driving into the box and finishing low and Hard brilliantly past the keeper into the far corner!

2 goal lead and deserved!

Hawks struggled to get their attack going with the job that our defence was doing however with a minute left on the clock in the first half, they got through and finished past Oliver with Cam almost clearing off the line.

HT -TD- 2 - Hawks - 1

At half time Nigel and Darren made sure the boys know that we were in control of the game and that we still had a job to do. The boys wanted to push on and finish the game with a win. During the talk Nigel let the boys know that subs would be made gradually due to the nature of the game, the opponents and the weather which the boys were great about.

Second half started very similar to how the first half did, the boys kept the pressure on and within a few minutes had won a corner again. Dean stepped up and played a ball in which was cleared back out to him. Dean did really well and played a pass into Jack, who had made a run from outside the area and beat his man before hitting a fantastic low driven shot into the far left corner of the pitch!

This seemed to wake the hawks up as they started to create a few more chances and from a corner, the ball dropped to their no11 who knocked the ball out of his feet and was tripped in the box. Penalty to the hawks which was dispatched past Oliver who got so close to it.

Some changes made with George and Lewis making their way onto the pitch and Harry and Zack making way. Stephen swapped to the right side and Dean pushed forward to Left Mid.

It was a close game with most of the ball attempting to go through Midfield but our boys held strong and kept creating chance after chance but it just didnt seem to get the finishing touches.

A fantastic run down the left from Dean played in Kieron who whipped a cross over the keeper that fell at the shins of Stephen who managed to slice it over the bar. Frustrated and annoyed he looked at me and said 'Next one'.

Sure enough, our next attack down the right side started with Stephen and Sam playing the ball between each other before Sam played a great pass back to Cam. Cam looks up and whips a dangerous ball into the Hawks penalty box causing the defender to slice the clearance straight up in the air. With 3 players around him, Freddie looked up and plucked the ball out of the sky and laid it off to Stephen just outside of the area who lashed it with his left foot first time into the back of the net past the keeper.

From this Nigel made the final changes and bought on Mase and Charlie, with Mase heading over to the right hand side and Charlie slotting in at CB.

Hawks tried their best to put on the pressure and we were doing really well dealing with the issues they were creating. George was doing well cutting out passing lanes on the left, Mase was looking to create danger down the right and Lewis, Freddie and Charlie were all doing great down the middle of the park.

A long ball took a nick off of one of our boys and went out for a corner which was defended well on the front post by Charlie, but from the next corner, we lost the no11 again and he flicked a header in off the post.

This would create a nervy finish for the last 5 minutes of the game but the boys did so well and didnt let Hawks get near our goal, Mase controlled the ball on the right side with Sam and Run out the clock!

FT TD - 4 - Hawks - 3

A fantastic Result that was closer than it should of been. A fighting, dominating show from all of the boys out there in awful weather! Onto the next round of the cup!

MOTM- Captain Jack! A leaders performance, 2 great goals, vocal all day and winning nearly every ball and tackle in the midfield.